


Up in Flames

by Day_dreaming



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 03:58:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6595735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Day_dreaming/pseuds/Day_dreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Esperanza knew her child, her beautiful baby boy, was something amazing the moment she laid eyes on him. </p>
<p>Every day after that, he just kept proving it to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up in Flames

The nurse had come after the delivery with a clean newborn and pitying expression. With red lips pulled in a tight smile, and blue eyes pinched, she handed over Esperanza’s last link to her love. “I’m sorry you’re all alone.” The nurse whispered. 

Esperanza smiled sadly, “He was never meant to stay…” The nurse gave Esperanza one last smile before leaving her alone with her child.

Her little Leo.

The child in question stared up at her with already curious brown eyes. He blinked once then a toothless smile spread across his face. Esperanza smiled at her little boy’s easy happiness and bumped him up and down. Leo’s curly head of hair bounced with each laugh he let loose.

Esperanza felt lighter than she had months, could feel hope for her future with each smile Leo gave her. She could feel hope, even excitement, for her and her son’s future. 

For the first time in a long while, Esperanza felt herself laugh. She laughed until her sides hurt and until she couldn’t breathe.

All the while, Leo laughed with her.

o0o

Esperanza knew life as a single mother would be hard, but this was something else entirely. Esperanza needed to work, she had just paid off the little garage that would hold her workshop. The sweet little girl who would watch Leo for her when she could no longer afford daycare had just went to college. No one seemed to want watch her little Leo, now.

Well, no one except Senora Callida, but there was something off about that woman. Whether it be the shawl she always wore or the way her voice carried years that did not belong, Esperanza could not begin to trust her.

It seemed she would have to, though.

Esperanza led Senora Callida through the halls of the old apartment building and to her little home where her little boy was playing. Senora Callida smiled in a way Esperanza did not like when Leo came into view. “Mijo, come meet your new babysitter.” She called to her son.

Leo looked up from his toy dragon, who seemed to be winning a fight against a T-Rex, and ran over to his mother. He stopped short when he noticed the unfamiliar woman standing next to her. His happy grin dropped off his face, only to be replaced by the curious-intelligent look he got when he found something new to figure out.

Esperanza crouched down to her son’s eye-level, “Mijo, this is Tia Callida; she’ll be watching you while I’m at work and you’re not at daycare.”

Leo stepped closer to her, and in all the discreetness of a two year old, whispered, “Why she wearin’ that thing on ‘er head?” 

Esperanza chuckled at his innocent question, “I don’t know, why don’t you ask her?” she whispered back just as discreetly.

Leo glanced up at Senora Callida for a moment before looking at his mother for reassurance, Esperanza nodded her head towards the other woman. Leo took in a deep breath, stepped forward, then asked, “Why you wearin’ a scarf on your head?”

Senora Callida did not find this as endearing as Esperanza did, she barely smiled, “I wear this _shawl_ in remembrance of the sacredness of marriage.” 

Esperanza could feel the grin slip off her face at that. Senora Callida was bound to leave as soon she found out the man of the house was not in the house, or ever was. Esperanza hated explaining her situation to people who would only scorn her in the end.

“And, in the sacredness of motherhood.” Senora Callida finished with a knowing look and a smile.

Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as she thought.

o0o

It was worse than she thought.

Three years, two fire incidents, a three year old knife juggler, and an uninterested rattlesnake later, Tia Callida was fired.

Esperanza should have known to trust her instincts when it came to that feeling, at least no one had gotten hurt in her son’s training.

Why her Leo though? Why did her baby have to be chosen to be a champion?

o0o

The next three years were uneventful. The days breezed by with an easiness Esperanza had never known. Sure, she had to work almost every day, but seeing her son’s face light up when she came home made everything worth it. 

Leo was exceedingly smart when it came to any and all things mechanical. He simply loved working with her in the shop and building his own world out of steel and cables. Her boy seemed to have a little trouble when it came to interacting with others his age. He took after his father in that respect. 

Over the sound of drills and the occasional welding tool they couldn’t hear each other very well, so she taught her little boy something her grandfather had taught her, Morse code. Leo took to this as easily as she thought he would, but after his ADHD brain realized he could use tapping to speak as well as his mouth, he took right to it. He took after Esperanza in that respect.

She had never been so glad she had taught him something than when _it_ happened.

o0o

It was another perfect day in her little world only consisting of herself, Leo, and her work shop. Esperanza had brought Leo that day, because he had been itching to try out her new drill. His projects had become more and more complex as the years went by; this time he was working on a fully automated plane.  
They were just locking up when Esperanza realized she had forgotten her keys. It was unusual for her to forget something so essential to her routine, but maybe the excitement of having Leo with her all day had made her forget.

“Stay here, mijo, I forgot my keys, I’ll only be a minute.” She said as she walked out the door of her office. 

When the door clicked shut, Esperanza felt dread shoot up her spine. Something was wrong, and she had to get herself and her little boy out of here. Esperanza hurried to her work station where she found her keys sitting innocently atop a pile of paperwork she had left for tomorrow.

A shout came from her office.

Esperanza knew that shout. It was her baby boy’s shout, she had heard it once when he had been cornered by an angry dog, before she ran out brandished with a hammer and scared it off. Esperanza had never wanted to hear that sound again. She ran to her office, and jiggled the knob.

It was locked, from the inside. Esperanza wasn’t aware it could lock from the outside. Why would it choose now off all times to make this clear to her?  
Inside the office, Esperanza could hear the frantic voice of her son and the muffled tinge of a drowsy voice that sent chills down her spine. _Her son was trapped with that_. Esperanza jiggled the knob more forcefully, “Mijo, mijo, are you okay!?” she shouted.

Her son was still speaking to that thing, when she felt the familiar presence of her son’s flames. This could not end well. Esperanza banged on the door and shoved at it desperately, she knew the voice her son was talking to was evil. She knew it the same way she knew Senora Callida was something more than a kind old widow, and the love of her life was more than a handsome man with a limp. 

The flames were spreading, and her son was screaming. Esperanza felt the evil presence leave, but the sense of danger did not leave with it. Leo was the one banging on the door now, trying to get out and save his mother. The fire was supernatural for it spread like a rumor and flooded the room with burning orange flames and a smoky haze. 

Esperanza felt something akin to terror fill her, not for herself, but for her son. Her sweet boy who loved and loved but only a few returned it. She knew her sister Rosy would not take him in, she had cursed the boy the moment she had seen his fingerprints burnt into a picnic table. A diablo she had called him, spitting and cursing his devil father for giving Esperanza such a horrible child.

A tear slipped down her cheek. Esperanza had not realized it but she had begun crying, weeping actually, at the thought of her son’s fate. She began cursing in Spanish, or English, or some unintelligible mix between the two.

She had wanted to be _there_. She had wanted to see her child grow up, and become the man she knew he’d be. Esperanza had never wanted anything more than to be with her son through sorrow and heartbreak, and through laughter and happiness. She had wanted to be _there_.

She wouldn’t be. Esperanza was destined to be part of a tragic past, a sob story, she was going to be part of her _son’s_ sob story. 

The flames were licking her boots, and the smoke was clogging up her lungs. She couldn’t shout any longer, and she couldn’t stay with her son much longer either. She stumbled closer to her the door that separated her little Leo from her. Esperanza kneeled by the door and started tapping.

_I love you. I love you. I love you so_ so _much. Please don’t think this is your fault, it’s not. You need to be strong, and live. Please live. You are so wonderful and special, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I wish I could bring you the moon and stars, but I can’t. Please, mijo, I want you to remember I love you so much, your father does too. I can feel it._

Esperanza knew her hands were getting clumsy, her vision was getting spotty, and she could barely lift her head. She kept going.

_You ar e som e th ing am az in g, I l o v e y o u . . ._

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings for Esperanza Valdez, okay??


End file.
